Best value amplifier under or near $6K

The BAT 75SE worked great with my Sophias---there was one for 3500 which is a steal.

VTL 450s if you want monos sound great as well.

I just got a set of Rogue M150's into my system, and they sound fabulous. It is about the 4th valve amp I have tried (Cayin AT88, Atma-Sphere M60 MK2.2, a couple of Jolidas) and by far the best with my speakers, which must be moderately power hungry, as they only really come alive with some current. The M150's are a steal for what they sell for.

I was also recommended the Premier 140 from Conrad Johnson, and the Ayon Triton, although I have yet to hear either.

The Atma-spheres are incredible if you don't need a whole lot of current. Mine were just missing some low end, which is typical if your speaker load is a bit tougher.

I have had the Acoustic Reality 1000 monos for about 3 years. They are very good and easy to move,connect,and run cool.

depending on the room size and listening levels you have a lot of choices in that range.

FWIW.. in a medium size room, 100wpc or so +/- ought to work pretty good on Sophias... and I'd opt for tubes.

Gary Dodd is making some 150wpc mono blocks or was... auto biasing too, even with a cap upgrade you should come out under your budget.

Or you can look into getting a pr of his 120wpc self bias monos with cap upgrade like I have, and be under $3K for the pr. Retubing is cheap too at <$300 for both amps using some NOS tubes and great sounding new issues of EL34!

They are outstanding amps. Just outstanding... and probably why they don't often come up for sale... and go quick when they do usually.

otherwise, in SS-land, if you could find a late model BAT VK500 w/BAT PK. in fine shape... there's a really nice amp. Twin monos... one chassis. heavy and runs hot but a real power house work horse pr of amps with a bent towrads a tube ish sound.

Owned both... loved both. Still got my Dodds.

lastly, each time I saw Sophias... they had big ayre monos running them. Not bad really with that setup, but with a tube preamp they'd sound better I'm sure. I feel Wilson's in general need tubes in there somewhere... but that's just me.

Good luck.

I would take a serious look at a used Asthetix Atlas amp, it is hybrid with tubes and SS technology. New it is $8k.

If I was spending that kind of money on amps, my audition list would be: Arion Audio RS 500, Odyssey Audio Stratos Mono Extremes (full upgrade), Butler Audio TDB 2250, Moscode 402Au (now on sale). I've heard various versions of all these amps, and they are all excellent, IMHO.

ARC DSi200 Integrated Stereo Amplifier

In the solid state realm I saw on Audiogon a Clayon 200 watt amp at $4,700. That is a gre3at deal for an outstanding amp. Or a used McCormack DNA-500. In third place a Modwright KWA-150.

As far as tubes are concerned, if you have a high effriciency speaker the Coinjcident Technology Frankensteins at 8 watts are a truly great amp. Best low powered amp I have aver heard---and by a good margin. At 70 watts, the Coincident Technology Dragons are outstanding. For more power, the Rogue M-180's are very good and priced right. Dehavilland also makes some nice models.

I missed the 'or similar' speaker bit....

yes... choose a speaker... the amp pick will be far easier that way.

'course, if you got to do an amp first, and it's not going to be a tube amp, get one with 200 - 300 wpc output and that will drive a wealth of speakers. BUT the best way is to match the amp with your speakers first... allowing the speakers needs to indicate which amp, in output and topology.

I was able to get GM-70 monoblocks from SAC Thailand for under $6K delivered. That's 35W of SET goodness. The GM70 is my favorite high powered SET (I prefer it to 211 and 845 tubes). Other commercial GM70 amps go for $13K (Dehavilland), $20K (Shindo) and over $100K (LAMM). From a price/performance standpoint this was one of the very best audio values I have found. Build quality exceeded my expectation. I'm a very happy owner.

Amps from Classe are an excellent value and challenge the best sounding amps costing far more. Most models can be found in great used condition for well under 6K.

Thanks to everyone for the responses. There are a few brand names listed that are new to me which I will follow up on in the future. A bit ahead of time but we just upgraded our speakers to Wilson Audio Sophia 3s so it will be quite some time before the budget is back enough to pursue a new amp. I'm fairly confident (hopeful) the eAR 1001s will do a decent job with them in the interim.

I would say the Sanders Audio Magtech amp, 400 watts into 8 ohms and $5k.

Correction to previous post on the Magtech power amplifier. It is rated at 500 watts RMS into 8 ohms and 900 watts RMS into 4 ohms. IMHO, it is a KILLER amp. I have a pair of Duntech Sovereigns that I've owned for 23 years and the Magtech makes them walk and talk.

The Clayton M200 Class A amps list at $9,500, but I have seen used models on Audiogon for under $5,000. These are incredble amps and the most accurate to the signal amps I have ever heard. And at 200 watts of great clean Class A power it can drive almost anything. The Clayton M100 at MSRP $6,500 is almost as good and is certainly better than any other 100 watt amp out there.